Traditional public transit provisioning is known. A set of fixed routes is established for a metropolitan area being served. For each fixed route, there is a physical route being traveled by public transit vehicles, including the scheduled stops along the physical route, as well as a time schedule for when a transit vehicle is expected to be at a particular scheduled stop. The fixed routes are established based on the population distribution and the street layout of the metropolitan area, as well as the perceived demand for service for that population. In addition, schedules are set up for vehicle trips along each fixed route. Trips typically travel along the full length of a fixed route. In some cases, however, a trip—referred to as a short turn—is scheduled to only travel along a segment of the fixed route. The trips are well-established to enable the transit provider to plan travel and to plan the manpower and vehicles required.
Once all of the trips have been defined, they are entered into a fixed-route transit run-cutting application. The run-cutting application has access to a set of rules and parameters for generating vehicle runs (i.e., vehicle assignments from pull-out from a depot to pull-in) and driver shifts and rosters. Rosters are biddable/assignable pieces of work representing an appropriate number of hours of work over a one or two week period. These rules and parameters correspond to the minimum and maximum lengths for driver shifts, the maximum spread time for split driver shifts, etc. The run-cutting application analyzes all of the trips and generates vehicle runs and driver shifts and rosters. In doing so, it takes into consideration the rules for generating vehicle runs and driver shifts and rosters, and timing information for a vehicle and driver to travel between the termination point of a trip on one fixed route to the origin point of another trip on the same or a different fixed route.
Paratransit, or dial-a-ride, is an alternative mode of flexible on-demand passenger transportation that does not follow fixed routes or schedules. Typically vans or mini-buses are used to provide paratransit service, but shared ride taxis and jitneys can also be used. Paratransit services operated by public transit organizations are often fully demand-responsive transport, wherein on-demand call-up curb-to-curb or door-to-door service from any origin to any destination in a service area is offered. Such services are typically provided to serve people in the metropolitan area that have a disability affecting their ability to use fixed-route transit, who are provided transportation services in accordance with a public or non-profit social service program of some type, etc. Trips in paratransit are scheduled as needed to meet the needs of individuals. Such passenger trips generally correspond to tasks like “Pick up Mr. Jones from his house at 123 Main Street at 3 pm and drive him to city hall”.
While, with fixed-route transit, a level of service is determined to meet the needs of the majority of the people using the service, the goals differ for the level of service provided to paratransit users. It is generally desirable to ensure that users requesting service receive service because their options are more limited. If paratransit service is not made available to some users, strong penalties may be imposed on the transit organization by the government, and the transit organization's public image may be negatively impacted.
In contrast to the method of run-cutting in fixed-route transit, paratransit vehicle runs and driver shifts and rosters are typically generated manually. Even though most paratransit service providers also operate fixed-route service, the manner in which trips are defined and scheduled for paratransit service does not make them readily enterable into a fixed-route transit run-cutting application. As passenger trips may be scheduled at any time, including shortly before the departure time, the passenger trip data generally is not available early enough to plan service requirements. As a result, paratransit service providers typically plan service by projecting how much demand there will be to determine how much service will be required, and then manually generating a run-cut. This process is labor-intensive and prone to human error.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a novel method and system for paratransit run-cutting.